manga: Cardcaptor Sakura vol 1

[meganbmoore]

Sakura: “Um, Um evil? Like stealing a snack? Or bending a flower? Or not doing homework? Staying up late…?”
Me: “Wow, I’m not used to Clamp characters being so cute and innocent and naïve!”

Of the people reading this LJ who are likely to ever read Cardcaptor Sakura, I’m likely the last one to get around to it. The setup for the series is pretty normal Magical Girl Shoujo: Sakura, a 4th grader, found a book in her father’s library. When she opened it, swirly magical lines came out, as did a small, winged thing named Kerberos that looks like a stuffed animal and speaks with a Kansai dialect. Kero tells Sakura that he’s the guardian of the Clow Cards, each of which, made by a powerful magician, has a magical entity sealed inside, but they caught him napping and they all escaped and are out wreaking havoc on the world. Since only someone with magic can open the book, Kero tricks talks Sakura into making a contract with him and becoming a Cardcaptor-a collector of the Clow cards. Naturally, all the escaped cards are lurking somewhere around her school.

Meanwhile, Sakura’s best friend, Tomoyo, knows her secret, so she creates all sorts of fancy dresses for Sakura to wear in battle, and videotapes her. Tomoyo is also extremely rich, and has a horde of female minions bodyguards. Tomoyo is Special. Sakura also have an older brother, Toya, who balances what looks to be an extreme and overprotective sister complex with nonstop torment. Which sounds about right for teenaged boys with much younger sisters. Sakura also has a crush on Toya’s best friend, Yuki (though I believe that’s short for Yukito) though that is clearly Doomed.

Obviously, this is set up for nonstop unadulterated cute, and the standard Magical Girl Shoujo Formula. Except, maybe I’m just brainwashed from all the xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle I’ve read the last year but I don’t care about either. I do rather embrace the unadulterated cute, though, even if I usually need the cute to be in the form of flashbacks of characters I’m used to as adults. Sakura and Tomoyo are both nicer than nice and sweeter than sweet, but don’t really come across as cloying or saccharine, and Tomoyo’s sheer insanity adds some interesting fun to the mix.

I must say, though…Sakura’s parents were 16 and 25 when they married? Well, I was warned that Clamp tries out pretty much every pairing type they can think of in this series.

I really wish, though, that they weren’t so overly fond of the swirly line approach to action. I’m not sure, but they may be worse at it here than they are in Tsubasa.

Also, even though I have, by default, absorbed a fair number of spoilers for this series, I’d rather not get more spoiled. 

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Sakura’s parents were 16 and 25 when they married? Well, I was warned that Clamp tries out pretty much every pairing type they can think of in this series.

Oh, just you wait. JUST YOU WAIT.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, in 1 volume, we already have that, that Sakura is clearly missing what kind of friends Toya and Yuki are (but she's allowed) and that Tomoyo is blatantly just dressing her crush up in cute outfits and filming it so she was watch it later.

I can believe it's just beginning.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

LOL That was exactly my thought, too.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Considering what they've made me shrug off in Tsubasa, this should be interesting.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I AGREE WITH THIS COMMENT.

[tinyangl.livejournal.com]

Oh MAN, it makes me ridiculously happy that you're reading this. lol I love when I recognize what you're reading and CCS. alskdjfalksjdf My favorites anime/manga ever. :DDD I so hope you'll enjoy. :DDDDDDDDDD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

HAH! Well, if you looked at the loot report a few days back, there's a lot of old school Clamp coming to the LJ.

[tinyangl.livejournal.com]

Actually, I remember looking at the list and seeing CCS and blanking out pretty much everything else. My bias. It's strong. XP

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

An understandable bias.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Oddly (or perhaps not), I loved the anime better than the manga. I absolutely adore the anime. But yes, it's so sweet and so innocent, and so totally unrelated to evil, and so flexible in its approach to relationships.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed she can be so pure without being remotely annoying.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

And then there's the travesty that was the US version, where they chopped it up so that Shaoran appeared to be the main character and called it Cardcaptors. Because God forbid a show be about a girl.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

...

*loves Syaoran on TRC principle, but strikes US CCS anime release from list*

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I think there may be a subtitled DVD release that is true to the original, but I know when they aired it on TV it was basically remade into a different show. So if you want to look for the anime, be sure you're getting one called Cardcaptor Sakura and not Cardcaptors.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I think there is....I have a VHS tape that I got for a dollar at some point in the last 5 years, and it has subtitles.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

There is, but it's out of print now, so it may be difficult to find, especially since Geneon went out of business. Netflix would probably be the easiest way to watch the whole thing.

[estara.livejournal.com]

There is a full DVD set with only subtitled original Card Captor Sakura, funny enough called "Card Captor Sakura", which I own in its entirety.

I believe they actually stopped selling the dub tapes because not enough sales were to be had. In any case I do have all the movies and the full set without cuts (but as a barebone release with just the episodes and subs).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah, cool. I'd pretty much just decided to stick with the manga for the various Clamp series, and not worry about the animes, but with all the praise for the CCS anime, I may have to check it out.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

It's exciting to see you read this. It's been a looong time for me, so I shall relive my love through you. :D

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, you should be reliving the first first 6 volumes over the next week or so...

[danyellalot.livejournal.com]

Oh God, just wait until you get to the ending. TEARS, I tell you, TEARS. And I'm not someone who cries over things like that (<---"that" being "immense cute").

Also, Tokyopop messed up the first several volumes, but Touya's actually the only one who calls Yukito "Yuki".

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Hmm...yeah, I thought there was something off with that, as fandom always said Yukito, but I figured it was just Sakura and her massive crush talking.

I normally can't handle cute like this unless it's flashback sequences of characters I'm used to as adults.

[danyellalot.livejournal.com]

Haha, CCS was actually the first series to make me not hate shoujo and all its sparkly cuteness. I think that says something.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

YAY, Cardcaptor Sakura!!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Such seems to be the general consensus.

[marspeach.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're late on this!! Hehe, never too late to get into this awesome series, I say. This is also one of the rare cases where I liked the anime better than the manga. Actually, the only case. But yeah, if you think the ages of Sakura's parents were bad, I just gotta tell you to be prepared.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, I only started with Clamp abourt a year ago, and only recently decided to go beyond the 2 massive cosplay x-over series.

[snarp]

I must say, though…Sakura’s parents were 16 and 25 when they married? Well, I was warned that Clamp tries out pretty much every pairing type they can think of in this series.

I actually always forget about that. Because it gets so much worse.

This series takes everything other froofy sparkly shoujo series just hint at, and does them. And then it does things that are even more messed-up. It has zero shame.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It already has a 11 year old whose chief motivation is to dress up the object of her crush in the cutest outfits she can think of so she can videotape her fighting and then watch the videos in her bedroom and sigh.

In theory, that should brace me for all sorts of things.

[snarp]

In *theory*.

Tomoyo is pretty emotionally healthy, but some other characters and relationships, not so much (though CLAMP seems to think they are...).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

All the Tomoyo's Clamp has given us strike he as being emotionally healthier and more happy as secure in themselves than anyone else around them. But also Very Very Special.

[rekallthegreat.livejournal.com]

CCS is probably the most adorable and cute manga ever created. That's pretty much all I have to say. XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Adorable and cute and pure and innocent...and yet, at the same time, it's already obviously not nearly as innocent as it looks!